"A goal without a plan is just a wish!" -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Early in our military careers, service members are groomed and taught the importance of planning within a military structure. Combat and support operations are the primary styles of such teachings. Military tactics, techniques, procedures (TTPs), and overall doctrine are ingrained into a soldier's thought process to the extent that they become an almost automatic way of processing ideas and solutions. So, it is inevitable that we will start applying such TTPs to everyday decisions and tasks. Purchasing a car, a road trip, a vacation, or even running and maintaining our household become mini-planning exercises. Such preparation allows servicemembers and their leaders to create a common vision and goals and achieve them based on doctrine and concepts like the Military Decision Making Process.

Preparing to embark on such an important journey as pursuing a college degree should be taken as deliberately and as seriously as the missions and operations we conducted throughout our military careers. While following a concept and process like the U.S. Army's Operations Order Development might seem like overthinking a simple decision, as mentioned before, military veterans, in many if not all instances, are already programmed to use such process seamlessly. So, using the standard five-paragraph "Op Order" format we are familiar with, college becomes a matter of plug-and-play when planning our "assault" on college life.

Assess the Situation and Mission

Advancing and assuming that students have done similar planning in selecting an institution of higher education based on some basic criteria such as location, degrees offered, price, and miscellaneous student support provided, we can move into helping students plan for the start of their first (or returning) semester. Using a condensed version of an Army Operations Order, we can use concepts like situation, mission, execution, service support, and command and signal as basic guides to approach entering or reentering a college mindset.

Within the framework of an "Op Order" college students must understand the standards placed before them, not as the "enemy forces" as dictated by Army doctrine, but as the goals to be achieved within their chosen degree path. The "friendly forces" are the support systems and assets within the college that assist them in day-to-day operations, like advisors, deans, teachers, tutors, and support programs. Their mission is to complete each task presented to them in pursuing their end goal of a college degree, each assignment, each course, each academic requirement, and support of such an academic journey.

The Execution Phase

The execution phase of a student's plan or operations order is filled with the "specified tasks" and "implied tasks" that accompany admissions, registration, course scheduling, and indoctrination into their chosen institution of higher learning. Included in the tasks are their inherent answers and anticipated required solutions. For example, have they selected their degree plan? This alignment is critical because, unbeknownst to many new college students, a degree plan or selected degree is tied directly to their financial aid eligibility. Financial aid will not pay for a course not aligned with their chosen degree plan. Continuing with the execution phase of their plan, time-driven events such as application deadlines, registration deadlines, class start dates, times, and locations become the subcomponent of execution known as the "concept of the operation."

The Administration and Logistics Phase

The service support portion of their plan now becomes their ability to plan and resource logistical needs for a semester's worth of college tuition, fees, transportation to and from, lodging, food, equipment (books and supplies), and subsistence items in general. In a very proactive approach, one could plan and resource for all two or four years of a degree plan, but in most cases, one academic year is most likely the goal. While this process and mindset might seem complicated and unfamiliar to someone with no military background, it is a structured method of addressing and answering common-sense questions and requirements to ensure a student veteran's college goals have the best chance of success. The structure developed within the "Operations Order" template is to assist and ensure that details and critical factors of a plan are not overlooked. However, from a strategic perspective, they boiled down to asking and answering common sense and basic questions:

• How have you chosen a college/university?
• Have you chosen a degree plan?
• When is the admission and registration deadline?
• Do you have all the required documents and forms (ready)?
• How much is it going to cost?
• How will you pay for it? Have you applied for such funding?
• Have you made a schedule (list) of your responsibilities other than school?
• Have you incorporated life, family, school, and work into your plan, finances, and schedule?

How Can We Implement SMEAC for Our Students?

For years and decades, we have operated under the assumption that being ready for college means, academically ready, that prospective students had taken and learned what was required of them, learning to succeed in a college classroom. However, with the rise in the price of college education and the increase of typical-age college students opting to enter the workforce, we are presently seeing a rate of approximately 60% of undergraduate students being 21 years old or older. The significance of this trend is that these students are no longer only managing or concerning themselves with going to class and the winter formal but are now having to manage jobs, living arrangements, and even families while pursuing a college degree. Planning is no longer a "good to have" idea but has become necessary and we can help our students using a SMEAC model.

Within the support services areas in most, if not all, institutions of higher education, we coach and advise using variations of "student success intake forms." As academic advisors, school administrators, or even instructors, review your intake forms and compare the similarities between your process and the SMEAC model (Situation, Mission, Execution, Administration/Logistics, and Command/Signal) as it pertains to advising and guiding a student through their plans and subsequent goals. You will find that in simpler terms, what we are asking our students to acknowledge and understand is:

• What is their current situation/status?
• What do they want?
• How are they going to get there?
• What do they need to make it possible?
• Who can help, or who do they need to talk to get there?

Article Topics

Military Friendly Institutions Serving Military in HigherEd Veterans Academic Success Working as a Veteran in HigherEd

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